Franklin,
BENJAMIN, statesman; born in Boston, Jan. 17, 1706. His
father was from England; his mother was a daughter of Peter Folger,
the Quaker poet of Nantucket.
He learned the art of printing with his brother; but due to
disagreements, Benjamin left Boston when seventeen years of age,
sought employment in New York.
Not succeeding there, he went to Philadelphia. He soon attracted the
attention of Governor Keith as a very bright lad, who, making him a
promise of the government printing, induced young Franklin, at the
age of eighteen, to go to England and purchase printing material. He
was deceived, and remained there eighteen months, working as a
journeyman printer in London. He returned to Philadelphia late in
1726, and in 1729 established himself there as a printer. He started
the Pennsylvania Gazette, and married Deborah Read, a young woman
whose husband had absconded. For many years he published an almanac
under the assumed name of Richard Saunders. It became widely known
as Poor Richard's Almanac, as it contained many wise and useful
maxims, mostly from the ancients. Franklin was soon marked as a
wise, prudent, and sagacious man, full of well-directed public
spirit. He was the chief founder of the Philadelphia Library in
1731. He became clerk of the Provincial Assembly in 1736, and
postmaster of Philadelphia the next year. He was the founder of the
University of Pennsylvania and the Philosophical Society of
Philadelphia in 1744, and was elected a member of the Provincial
Assembly in 1750. In 1753 he was appointed deputy postmaster for the
English-American colonies; and in 1754 he was a delegate to the
Colonial Congress of Albany, in which he prepared a
plan of union
for the colonies, which was the basis of the
Articles of
Confederation adopted by Congress more than twenty years
afterwards.

Benjamin Franklin's Electrical Experiments with the
Kite

Franklin had begun his investigations and
experiments in electricity, by which he demonstrated its identity
with lightning as early as 1746. The publication of his account of
these experiments procured for him membership in the Royal Society,
the Copley gold medal, and the degree of LL.D. from Oxford and
Edinburgh in 1762. Harvard and Yale colleges had previously
conferred upon him the decree of Master of Arts. Franklin was for
many years a member of the Assembly and advocated the rights of the
people in opposition to the claims of the proprietaries; and in 1764
he was sent to England as agent of the colonial legislature, in
which capacity he afterwards acted for several other colonies. His
representation to the British ministry, in 1765-66, of the temper of
the Americans on the subject of taxation by Parliament did much in
effecting the repeal of the
Stamp Act. He tried to avert the calamity of a rupture between
Great Britain and her colonies; but, failing in this, he returned to
America in 1775, after which he was constantly employed at home and
abroad in the service of his countrymen struggling for political
independence.

In
Congress, he advocated, helped to prepare and signed the
Declaration
of Independence; and in the fall of 1776 he was sent as ambassador
to France, as the colleague of Silas Deane and
Arthur Lee. To him
was chiefly due the successful negotiation of the treaty of alliance
with France, and he continued to represent his country there until
1785, when he returned home. While he was in France, and residing at
Passy in 1777, a medallion likeness of him was made in the red clay
of that region. He took an important part in the negotiation
of the treaties of peace. In 1786 he was elected governor of
Pennsylvania, and served one term; and he was a leading member in
the convention, in 1787, that framed the national Constitution. His
last public act was the signing of a memorial to Congress on the
subject of slavery by the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania, of
which he was the founder and president. Dr. Franklin performed
extraordinary labors of usefulness for his fellow-men. In addition
to scientific and literary institutions, he was the founder of the
first fire-company in Philadelphia in 1738; organized a volunteer
military association for the defense of the province in 1744; and
was colonel of a regiment, and built forts for the defense of the
frontiers in 1755. He was the inventor of the FRANKLIN STOVE, which
in modified forms is still in use. He was also the inventor of the
lightning-rod. Franklin left two children, a son, William, and a
daughter. He died in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, April 17, 1790.

Benjamin Franklin Sent to England

In 1752 the Pennsylvania, Assembly, yielding to
the urgency of public affairs in the midst of war, voted a levy of
$500,000 without insisting upon their claim to tax the proprietary
estates. They protested that they did it through compulsion; and
they sent Franklin to England as their agent to urge their complaint
against the proprietaries. This was his first mission abroad. At the
beginning of the French and Indian War (1754) the colonists, as well
as the royal governors, saw the necessity of a colonial union in
order to present a solid front of British subjects to the French.
Dr. Franklin labored earnestly to this end, and in 1755 he
went to Boston to confer with Governor Shirley on the subject. At
the governor's house they discussed the subject long and earnestly.
Shirley was favorable to union, but he desired it to be effected by
the fiat of the British government and by the spontaneous act of the
colonists. Franklin, on the contrary, animated by a love of popular
liberty, would not consent to that method of forming a colonial
union. He knew the true source of power was lodged with the people,
and that a good government should be formed by the people for the
people; and he left Shirley in disappointment. Shirley not only
condemned the idea of a popular colonial government, but assured
Franklin that he should immediately propose a plan of union to the
ministry and Parliament, and also a tax on the colonies.

In February, 1766, Dr. Franklin was examined before the House of
Commons relative to the STAMP
ACT. At that examination he fairly illustrated the spirit which
animated the colonies. When asked, " Do you think the people of
America would submit to the stamp duty if it were moderated?" he
answered, " No, never, unless compelled by force of arms." To the
question," What was the temper of America towards Great Britain
before the year 1763?" he replied, " The best in the world. They
submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in
their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the
people are in the old provinces, they cost you nothing, in forts,
citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection. They
were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen,
ink, and paper; they were led by a thread. They had not only a
respect but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its
customs, and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions that
greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always
treated with peculiar regard. To be an 'Old England man' was
of itself a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among
us." It was asked, " What is their temper now?" and Franklin
replied, " Oh, very much altered." He declared that all laws of
Parliament had been held valid by the Americans, excepting such as
laid internal taxes; and that its authority was never disputed in
levying duties to regulate commerce. When asked, "Can you name any
act of Assembly or public act of your government that made such
distinction?" Franklin replied, " I do not know that there was any;
I think there never was occasion to make such an act till now that
you have attempted to tax us; that has occasioned acts of Assembly
declaring the distinction, on which, I think, every Assembly on the
continent, and every member of every Assembly, have been unanimous."
This examination was one of the causes which led to a speedy repeal
of the Stamp Act.

Late
in 1773 Dr. Franklin presented to Lord Dartmouth, to be laid before
the King, a petition from Massachusetts for the removal of Governor
Hutchinson and Chief - Justice Oliver from office. They were charged
with conspiracy against the colony, as appeared by certain letters
which had been published. A rumor found utterance in the newspapers
that the letters had been dishonestly obtained through John Temple,
who had been permitted to examine the papers of the deceased Mr.
Whately, to whom the letters were addressed. That permission had
been given by William Whately, brother and executor of the deceased.
Whately never made a suggestion that Temple had taken the letters
away, but he published such an evasive card that it seemed not to
relieve Temple from the implication. The latter challenged Whately
to mortal combat. They fought, but were unhurt. Another duel was
likely to ensue, when Dr. Franklin, to prevent bloodshed, publicly
said: " I alone am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston
the letters in question." This frank and courageous avowal drew upon
him the wrath of the ministry. He was summoned before the privy
council (Jan. 8, 1774) to consider the petition. He appeared with
counsel. A crowd was presentónot less than thirty-five peers.
Wedderburn, the solicitor-general (of whom the King said, at his
death, " He has not left a greater knave behind him in my kingdom
"), abused Franklin most shamefully with unjust and coarse
invectives, while not an emotion was manifested in the face of the
abused statesman. The ill-bred lords of that day seconded
Wedderburn's abuse by derisive laughter, instead of treating
Franklin with decency. At the end of the solictor's ribald speech
the petition was dismissed as "groundless, scandalous, and
vexatious." " I have never been so sensible of the power of a good
conscience," Franklin said to Dr. Priestley, with whom he
breakfasted the next morning. When he went home from the council he
laid aside the suit of clothes he wore, making a vow that he would
never put them on again until he should sign the degradation of
England by a dismemberment of the British Empire and the
independence of America. He kept his word, and, as commissioner for
negotiating peace almost ten years afterwards, he performed the act
that permitted him to wear the garments again.

Benjamin Franklin standing before the Lords in
Council in Whitehall Chapel, London in 1774, presenting the concerns
of the American colonists

Franklin, in England in 1774, was a perfect
enigma to the British ministry. They were perplexed with doubts of
the intentions of the defiant colonists. They believed Franklin
possessed the coveted secret, and tried in vain to draw it from him.
He was an expert chess-player, and well known as such. Lord Howe
(afterwards admiral on our coast) was intimate with leading
ministers. His sister-in-law, Mrs. Howe, was also an expert
chess-player, and an adroit diplomatist. She sent Franklin an
invitation to her house to play chess, with the hope that in the
freedom of social conversation she might obtain the secret. He went;
was charmed with the lady's mind and manners ; played a few games;
and accepted an invitation to repeat the visit and the amusement. On
his second visit, after playing a short time, they entered into
conversation, when Mrs. Howe put questions adroitly to the sage,
calculated to elicit the information she desired. He answered
without reserve and with apparent frankness. He was introduced to
her brother, Lord Howe, and talked freely with him on the subject of
the great dispute; but, having early perceived the designs of the
diplomatists, his usual caution had never allowed him to betray a
single secret worth preserving. At the end of several interviews,
enlivened by chess-playing, his questioners were no wiser than at
the beginning.

While the
Continental Congress
was in session in the fall of 1774, much anxiety was felt in
political circles in England concerning the result. The ministry, in
particular, were anxious to know, and Franklin was solicited by
persons high in authority to promulgate the extent of the demands of
his countrymen. So urgent were these requests that, without waiting
to receive a record of the proceedings of the Congress, he prepared
a paper entitled Hints for Conversation upon the Subject of Terms
that may probably produce a durable Union between Britain and the
Colonies, in seventeen propositions. The substance of the whole was
that the colonies should be reinstated in the position which they
held, in relation to the imperial government, before the obnoxious
acts then complained of became laws, by a repeal, and by a
destruction of the whole brood of enactments in reference to America
hatched since the accession of George III. In a word, he proposed
that English subjects in America should enjoy all the essential
rights and privileges claimed as the birthright of subjects in
England. Nothing came of the Hints.

After the
attack by Wedderburne when before the privy council, and his
dismissal from the office of postmaster-general for the colonies,
Franklin was subjected to the danger of arrest, and possibly a
trial, for treason; for the ministry, angry because he had exposed
Hutchinson's letters, made serious threats. Conscious of rectitude,
he neither left England then nor swerved a line from his course of
duty. When, in February, 1776, Lord North endeavored to find out
from him what the Americans wanted, "We desire nothing," said
Franklin, " but what is necessary to our security and well-being."
After stating that some of the obnoxious acts would probably be
repealed, Lord North said the
Massachusetts acts must
be continued, both "as real amendments" of the constitution of
that province, and " as a standing example of the power of
Parliament." Franklin replied: "While Parliament claims the right
of altering American constitutions at pleasure, there can be no
agreement, for we are rendered unsafe in every privilege." North
answered: "An agreement is necessary for America; it is so easy for
Britain to burn all your seaport towns." Franklin coolly answered: "
My little property consists in houses in those towns; you may make
bonfires of them whenever you please; the fear of losing them will
never alter my resolution to resist to the last the claim of
Parliament."

Mr. Strahan, of London, had been a
sort of go-between through whom Dr. Franklin had communicated with
Lord North. On July 5, 1776, Franklin wrote to him: " You are a
member of Parliament, and one of that majority which has doomed my
country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder
our people. Look upon your hands; they are stained with the blood of
your relations! You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy,
and I am yours.-B. FRANKLIN."

Benjamin Franklin's Reception in France

Late in the autumn of 1776 Dr. Franklin was sent
as a diplomatic agent to France in the ship Reprisal. The passage
occupied thirty days, during which that vessel had been chased by
British cruisers and had taken two British brigantines as prizes. He
landed at Nantes on Dec. 7. Europe was surprised, for no notice had
been given of his coming. His fame was world-wide. The courts were
filled with conjectures. The story was spread in England that he was
a fugitive for safety. Burke said, " I never will believe that he is
going to conclude a long life, which has brightened every hour it
has continued, with so foul and dishonorable a flight." On the
Continent it was rightly concluded that he was on an important
mission. To the French people he spoke frankly, saying that twenty
successful campaigns could not subdue the Americans; that their
decision for independence was irrevocable; and that they would be
forever independent States. On the morning of December 28, Franklin,
with the other commissioners (Silas Deane and
Arthur Lee), waited
upon Vergennes, the French minister for foreign affairs, when he
presented the plan of Congress for a treaty. Vergennes spoke of the
attachment of the French nation to the American cause; requested a
paper from Franklin on the condition of America; and that, in
future, intercourse with the sage might be in secret, without the
intervention of a third person. Personal friendship between these
two distinguished men became strong and abiding. He told Franklin
that as Spain and France were in perfect accord he might communicate
freely with the Spanish minister, the Count de Aranda. With him the
commissioners held secret but barren interviews as Aranda would only
promise the freedom of Spanish ports to American vessels.

Benjamin Franklin Traveling to France

Vindication of the Colonies.

-On June, 15, 1775, Franklin issued the following
address to the public:

Forasmuch as the enemies of
America in the Parliament of Great Britain, to render us odious to
the nation, and give an ill impression of us in the minds of other
European powers, having represented us as unjust and ungrateful in
the highest degree; asserting, on every occasion, that the colonies
were settled at the expense of Britain; that they were, at the
expense of the same, protected in their infancy; that they now
ungratefully and unjustly refuse to contribute to their own
protection, and the common defense of the nation; that they intend
an abolition of the navigation acts; and that they are fraudulent in
their commercial dealings, and propose to cheat their creditors in
Britain, by avoiding the payment of their just debts; And as by
frequent repetitions these groundless assertions and malicious
calumnies may, if not contradicted and refuted, obtain further
credit, and be injurious throughout Europe to the reputation and
interest of the Confederate colonies, it seems proper and necessary
to examine them in our own just vindication.

With
regard to the first, that the colonies were settled at the expense
of Britain, it is a known fact that none of the twelve united
colonies were settled, or even discovered, at the expense of
England. Henry VII., indeed, granted a commission to Sebastian
Cabot, a Venetian, and his sons to sail into western seas for the
discovery of new countries; but it was to be "suis corum propriis
sumptibus et expensis," at their own cost and charges. They
discovered, but soon slighted and neglected these northern
territories; which were, after more than a hundred years'
dereliction, purchased of the natives, and settled at the charge and
by the labor of private men and bodies of men, our ancestors, who
came over hither for that purpose. But our adversaries have never
been able to produce any record that ever the Parliament or
government of England was at the smallest expense on these
ac-counts; on the contrary, there exists on the journals of
Parliament a solemn declaration in 1642 (only twenty-two years after
the first settlement of the Massachusetts colony, when, if such
expense had ever been incurred, some of the members must have known
and remembered it), " that these colonies had been planted and
established without any expense to the state."

New York is the only colony
in the founding of which England can pretend to have been at any
expense, and that was only the charge of a small armament to take it
from the Dutch, who planted it. But to retain this colony at the
peace, another at that time fully as valuable, planted by private
countrymen of ours, was given up by the crown to the Dutch in
exchange-viz., Surinam, now a wealthy sugar colony in Guiana, and
which, but for that cession, might still have remained in our
possession. Of late, indeed, Britain has been at some expense in
planting two colonies, Georgia and Nova Scotia, but those are not in
our confederacy; and the expense she has been at in their name has
chiefly been in grants of sums unnecessarily large, by way of
salaries to officers sent from England, and in jobs to friends,
whereby dependants might be provided for; those excessive grants not
being requisite to the welfare and good government of the colonies,
which good government (as experience in many instances of other
colonies has taught us) may be much more frugally, and full as
effectually, provided for and supported.

With regard to the second assertion, that these
colonies were protected in their infant state by England, it is a
notorious fact, that, in none of the many wars with the Indian
natives, sustained by our infant settlements for a century after our
arrival, were ever any troops or forces of any kind sent from
England to assist us; nor were any forts built at her expense, to
secure our seaports from foreign invaders; nor any ships of war sent
to protect our trade till many years after our first settlement,
when our commerce became an object of revenue, or of advantage to
British merchants; and then it was thought necessary to have a
frigate in some of our ports, during peace, to give weight to the
authority of custom-house officers, who were to restrain that
commerce for the benefit of England. Our own arms, with our poverty,
and the care of a kind Providence, were all this time our only
protection; while we were neglected by the English government; which
either thought us not worth its care, or, having no good will to
some of us, on account of our different sentiments in religion and
politics, was indifferent what became of us.

On
the other hand, the colonies have not been wanting to do what they
could in every war for annoying the enemies of Britain. They
formerly assisted her in the conquest of Nova Scotia. In the war
before last they took Louisburg, and put it into her hands. She made
her peace with that strong fortress by restoring it to France,
greatly to their detriment. In the last war, it is true, Britain
sent a fleet and army, who acted with an equal army of ours, in the
reduction of Canada, and perhaps thereby did more for us, than we in
our preceding wars had done for her. Let it be remembered, however,
that she rejected the plan we formed in the Congress at Albany, in
1754, for our own defense, by a union of the colonies; a union she
was jealous of, and therefore chose to send her own forces;
otherwise her aid to protect us was not wanted. And from our first
settlement to that time, her military operations in our favor were
small, compared with the advantages she drew from her exclusive
commerce with us. We are, however, willing to give full weight to
this obligation ; and, as we are daily growing stronger, and our
assistance to her becomes of more importance, we should with
pleasure embrace the first opportunity of showing our gratitude by
returning the favor in kind.

But,
when Britain values herself as affording us protection, we desire it
may be considered that we have followed her in all her wars, and
joined with her at our own expense against all she thought fit to
quarrel with. This she has required of us; and would never permit us
to keep peace with any power she declared her enemy; though by
separate treaties we might have done it. Under such circumstances,
when at her instance we made nations our enemies, we submit it to
the common-sense of mankind, whether her protection of us in those
wars was not our just due, and to be claimed of right, instead of
being received as a favor? And whether, when all the parts exert
themselves to do the utmost in their common defense, and in annoying
the common enemy, it is not as well the parts that protect the
whole, as the whole that protects the parts? The protection then has
been proportionately mutual. And whenever the time shall come that
our abilities may as far exceed hers as hers have exceeded ours, we
hope we shall be reason-able enough to rest satisfied with her
proportionable exertions, and not think we do too much for a part of
the empire, when that part does as much as it can for the whole.

To charge against us that we refuse to contribute to our own
protection, appears from the above to be groundless; but we further
declare it to be absolutely false; for it is well known, that 'we
ever held it as our duty to grant aids to the crown, upon
requisition, towards carrying on its wars; which duty we have
cheerfully complied with, to the utmost of our abilities, insomuch
that prudent and grateful acknowledgments thereof by King and
Parliament appear on the records. But, as Britain has enjoyed a most
gainful monopoly of our commerce; the same, with our maintaining the
dignity of the King's representative in each colony, and all our own
separate establishments of government, civil and military; has ever
hitherto been deemed an equivalent for such aids as might otherwise
be expected from us in time of peace. And we hereby declare that on
a reconciliation with Britain, we shall not only continue to grant
aids in time of war, as aforesaid; but whenever she shall think fit
to abolish her monopoly, and give us the same privileges of trade as
Scotland received at the union, and allow us a free commerce with
the rest of the world; we shall willingly agree (and we doubt not it
will be ratified by our constituents) to give and pay into the
sinking fund £100,000 sterling per annum for the term of 100 years,
which duly, faithfully, and inviolably applied to that purpose, is
demonstrably more than sufficient to extinguish all her present
national debt; since it will in that time amount, at legal British
interest, to more than £230,000,000.

But if
Britain does not think fit to accept this proposition, we, in order
to remove her groundless jealousies, that we aim at independence and
an abolition of the navigation act (which hath in truth never been
our intention), and to avoid all future disputes about the right of
making that and other acts for regulating our commerce, do hereby
declare ourselves ready and willing to enter into a covenant with
Britain, that she shall fully possess, enjoy, and exercise the
right, for 100 years to come; the same being bona fide used for the
common benefit; and, in case of such agreement, that every Assembly
be advised by us to confirm it solemnly by laws of their own, which,
once made, cannot be repealed without the assent of the crown.

The last charge, that we are dishonest traders, and aim at
defrauding our credit-ors in Britain, is sufficiently and
authentically refuted by the solemn declarations of the British
merchants to Parliament (both at the time of the Stamp Act and in
the last session), who bore ample testimony to the general good
faith and fair dealing of the Americans, and declared their
confidence in our integrity; for which we refer to their petitions
on the journals of the House of Commons. And we presume we may
safely call on the body of the British tradesmen, who have had
experience of both, to say, whether they have not received much more
punctual payment from us, than they generally have from the members
of their own two Houses of Parliament.

On the
whole of the above it appears that the charge of ingratitude towards
the mother - country, brought with so much confidence against the
colonies, is totally without foundation; and that there is much more
reason for retorting that charge on Britain, who, not only never
contributes any aid, nor affords, by an exclusive commerce, any
advantages to Saxony, her mother - country ; but no longer since
than in the last war, without the least provocation, subsidized the
King of Prussia while he ravaged that mother-country, and carried
fire and sword into its capital, the fine city of Dresden ! An
example we hope no provocation will induce us to imitate.

Benjamin Franklin's Return to Philadelphia in 1785

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